I attended Bubonicon a few years ago. Would go again if it weren't 1,800 miles from New Jersey. ;-) The time I attended it was part of a roundtrip light plane trip with a couple of stopovers. Nothing like seeing the landscape from a few thousand feet vs. 30-some thousand.

That said, the con is relatively small, as attendees are primarily from that area. It was very well organized, and since a number of pros live in the area, they participated on panels, etc. From a GRRM perspective, George has a lot of time to mingle with fans since the business aspects of a larger con are not an impediment.

Capclave will be larger but not that much larger and my guess is George will have a lot of time with fans, though as GOH he will have more formal duties to which to attend. I purchased my membership a couple weeks ago. Sales of memberships are ahead of prior years (wonder why?) ;-) and there is a possibility they will sell out later this year due to the hotel fire occupancy laws.

I will be at Lonestarcon, too. George will likely have business commitments, but it's also a 5 day con so there will be opportunities to mingle and hang out. The BWB party(ies) at worldcon are a don't miss.

I really like the theme for Bubonicon. The hotel is less expensive than I thought it would be and the airfare isn't too bad given the distance. I'll have to think about it some more, but will need to book soon. With the show starting back up, flight rates may go up awfully quick.

Thanks for pointing out the increase in Capclave membership. I went ahead and booked my room to be on the safe side even though I might stay with some relatives. I'm not quite sure how far they are from Gaithersburg and I don't want them to feel like they need to get me around since I'm not driving up.

I'm in, as always...for those who haven't been, Bubonicon is the "home con" for GRRM, Daniel Abraham, Ty Franck, Walter Jon Williams, Ian Tregillis, and Melinda Snodgrass, as well as a frequent stop for Diana Gabaldon, Carrie Vaughan and Connie Willis. All of the above will be there this year, along with Sam Sykes and co-Guests of Honor Tim Powers and Brent Weeks,.

The con is always great, well-run with interesting panels and lots of author interactions. Plus, Albuquerque is one of the very best places to get your chile fix (personally, I go for red and its smoky burn but green and its sharp fire is a very valid option, too /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />).

It would be really great if someone who attended the reading could report anything about it. Apparently it was about Aenys I and Maegor the Cruel directly from the GRRMarillion, so this is obviously new stuff.

And I really have to say I'm dying to get a more detailed impression of Maegor and especially Aenys. We don't know anything about him besides the claim that he was apparently weak.

It would be really great if someone who attended the reading could report anything about it. Apparently it was about Aenys I and Maegor the Cruel directly from the GRRMarillion, so this is obviously new stuff.

And I really have to say I'm dying to get a more detailed impression of Maegor and especially Aenys. We don't know anything about him besides the claim that he was apparently weak.

I was there...standing room only, well over a hundred people.

GRRM started with a little bit of background on World of Ice and Fire: started as a coffee table deal with lots of art and some Elio and Linda text, then he wanted to add some info of his own, then he wrote something like 4 times more than they had planned and had only covered half of what he wanted to, and then they pared it back to the art and some text concept.

Then he read part of the text he's written for Aenys and Maegor, the Sons of the Dragon. This will not be in the WOIAF, at least in this form, too lengthy. He hopes for this to be part of the eventual Grim-arillion (as he calls it)...but first he's got to finish WOIAF, D&E novella, and WOW.

Aenys was the eldest son, son of the younger sister/wife (name escapes me, but she died in Dorne with her dragon). He was considered weakly at birth and early childhood, but once he bonded with his dragon, Quicksilver, he rapidly became stronger and more confident.

He was never a match for Maegor, though. Maegor was often seen as cruel, never treating animals well and keeping to himself, but he was also seen as an amazing knight, one of the youngest in the kingdom to be knighted (16?) and a better jouster than many grown men he met in the lists.

Maegor was the son of the older sister/wife and her first and only child. Her younger sister had several other children (2-3 more after Aenys, I believe) before Maegor was even born. I think the age difference was ~5 years between the brothers.

There was some controversy as the boys grew as to whether they would maintain the Valeryian tradition of intra-family marriage. Memory fails a bit here, but I think Aenys married outside the family, for political reasons, and Maegor married one of his half-sisters (a full sister of Aenys). However, Aenys' soon had a daughter and many argued that succession should go through Aenys and then his daughter, before reaching Maegor. Meanwhile, Maegor (who had been married at 13 to a 16-17 year old and had proclaimed the day afterwards that he had created a son on his wedding night) had no children. Nor had he bonded with a dragon, claiming none were worthy.

Once the Dragon died, Aenys ascended to the throne, only to have numerous revolts break out. Without a notebook, I can't really narrate the twists and turns of this, but it culminated in a showdown at the Eyrie, where the rebels felt quite secure until Maegor appeared with his newly bonded dragon and forced their surrender lest they be torched out of their fortress. Despite the surrender, he still hanged every one of them from The Eyrie.

In gratitude and a show of family solidarity, Aenys named Maegor his Hand (the previous one having been killed during the revolts)...but, GRRM noted, this amity was to be short-lived.

GRRM started with a little bit of background on World of Ice and Fire: started as a coffee table deal with lots of art and some Elio and Linda text, then he wanted to add some info of his own, then he wrote something like 4 times more than they had planned and had only covered half of what he wanted to, and then they pared it back to the art and some text concept.

Then he read part of the text he's written for Aenys and Maegor, the Sons of the Dragon. This will not be in the WOIAF, at least in this form, too lengthy. He hopes for this to be part of the eventual Grim-arillion (as he calls it)...but first he's got to finish WOIAF, D&E novella, and WOW.

Aenys was the eldest son, son of the younger sister/wife (name escapes me, but she died in Dorne with her dragon). He was considered weakly at birth and early childhood, but once he bonded with his dragon, Quicksilver, he rapidly became stronger and more confident.

He was never a match for Maegor, though. Maegor was often seen as cruel, never treating animals well and keeping to himself, but he was also seen as an amazing knight, one of the youngest in the kingdom to be knighted (16?) and a better jouster than many grown men he met in the lists.

Maegor was the son of the older sister/wife and her first and only child. Her younger sister had several other children (2-3 more after Aenys, I believe) before Maegor was even born. I think the age difference was ~5 years between the brothers.

There was some controversy as the boys grew as to whether they would maintain the Valeryian tradition of intra-family marriage. Memory fails a bit here, but I think Aenys married outside the family, for political reasons, and Maegor married one of his half-sisters (a full sister of Aenys). However, Aenys' soon had a daughter and many argued that succession should go through Aenys and then his daughter, before reaching Maegor. Meanwhile, Maegor (who had been married at 13 to a 16-17 year old and had proclaimed the day afterwards that he had created a son on his wedding night) had no children. Nor had he bonded with a dragon, claiming none were worthy.

Once the Dragon died, Aenys ascended to the throne, only to have numerous revolts break out. Without a notebook, I can't really narrate the twists and turns of this, but it culminated in a showdown at the Eyrie, where the rebels felt quite secure until Maegor appeared with his newly bonded dragon and forced their surrender lest they be torched out of their fortress. Despite the surrender, he still hanged every one of them from The Eyrie.

In gratitude and a show of family solidarity, Aenys named Maegor his Hand (the previous one having been killed during the revolts)...but, GRRM noted, this amity was to be short-lived.

By the way, for those who are in any way interested in coming to Bubonicon sometime, it's a great little convention. In addition to the GRRM reading (which happens every year because he attends every year /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />), I attended a reading from Walter Jon Williams (of a short story for the Rogues anthology from GRRM and Gardner Dozois), a reading from James SA Corey (of their short from the Old Mars anthology), a discussion with Tim Powers where he held forth on why fantasy really matters, a two-man panel with Tim Powers and GRRM on dark fantasy, a panel on the apocalypse (with Diana Rowland, Ian Tregillis, and Sam Sykes), a panel on assassins and serial killers (with Brent Weeks, Diana Gabaldon, and Melinda Snodgrass), and a panel on superstition (with Tim Powers, Ian Tregillis, and Diana Gabaldon). Good stuff, plus I missed the Brent Weeks reading and the Daniel Abraham-led panel on comic writing and the Connie Willis-led panel on stories having satisfying pay-offs.

And there's always a mass autographing session with all the authors, most of whom have time to chat, too, given the relaxed atmosphere and the fact that there's only about 800 or so attendees in total.

GRRM started with a little bit of background on World of Ice and Fire: started as a coffee table deal with lots of art and some Elio and Linda text, then he wanted to add some info of his own, then he wrote something like 4 times more than they had planned and had only covered half of what he wanted to, and then they pared it back to the art and some text concept.

Then he read part of the text he's written for Aenys and Maegor, the Sons of the Dragon. This will not be in the WOIAF, at least in this form, too lengthy. He hopes for this to be part of the eventual Grim-arillion (as he calls it)...but first he's got to finish WOIAF, D&E novella, and WOW.

Aenys was the eldest son, son of the younger sister/wife (name escapes me, but she died in Dorne with her dragon). He was considered weakly at birth and early childhood, but once he bonded with his dragon, Quicksilver, he rapidly became stronger and more confident.

He was never a match for Maegor, though. Maegor was often seen as cruel, never treating animals well and keeping to himself, but he was also seen as an amazing knight, one of the youngest in the kingdom to be knighted (16?) and a better jouster than many grown men he met in the lists.

Maegor was the son of the older sister/wife and her first and only child. Her younger sister had several other children (2-3 more after Aenys, I believe) before Maegor was even born. I think the age difference was ~5 years between the brothers.

There was some controversy as the boys grew as to whether they would maintain the Valeryian tradition of intra-family marriage. Memory fails a bit here, but I think Aenys married outside the family, for political reasons, and Maegor married one of his half-sisters (a full sister of Aenys). However, Aenys' soon had a daughter and many argued that succession should go through Aenys and then his daughter, before reaching Maegor. Meanwhile, Maegor (who had been married at 13 to a 16-17 year old and had proclaimed the day afterwards that he had created a son on his wedding night) had no children. Nor had he bonded with a dragon, claiming none were worthy.

Once the Dragon died, Aenys ascended to the throne, only to have numerous revolts break out. Without a notebook, I can't really narrate the twists and turns of this, but it culminated in a showdown at the Eyrie, where the rebels felt quite secure until Maegor appeared with his newly bonded dragon and forced their surrender lest they be torched out of their fortress. Despite the surrender, he still hanged every one of them from The Eyrie.

In gratitude and a show of family solidarity, Aenys named Maegor his Hand (the previous one having been killed during the revolts)...but, GRRM noted, this amity was to be short-lived.

And then the reading was cruelly over...

/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Thanks!! /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Interesting that the Dornishmen actually managed to kill Rhaenys and her dragon(Meraxes??).

So what's going on? Why were revolts taking place? Was the wife of Maegor, when he was 13, Aeny's sister or some other woman? And if he hadn't fathered any children what was this about creating a kid through this teenager wife (who was Aeny's sister?) on his wedding night?

Interesting that the Dornishmen actually managed to kill Rhaenys and her dragon(Meraxes??).

I didn't get that at all. There's a 30-year gap between Aegon's conquest and Aegon's death, remember. It merely said that Rhaenys died 'in Dorne'. It might be that Rhaenys was there negotiating some kind of deal with the Dornish and died of natural causes (which seems unlikely if her dragon died at the same) or she was assassinated by some other force.

If the Dornish did kill Rhaenys and her dragon, it is ludicrously implausible that Aegon wouldn't burn every castle and town in Dorne to the ground in response (and remember that Aegon really loved Rhaenys, whilst apparently saw being with Visenya more of a family duty). That kind of shit does not stand, and Aegon would lose the respect and support of his vassals if he did let it go.

Very interesting that Rhaenys died in Dorne with her dragon Meraxes, but it certainly explains why she is his only known dragonrider, at least.

Also of note that we learn a new dragon name, 'Quicksilver'. Presumably we learn one more, Maegor's dragon, but it is possible that he bonded with Balerion or another existing dragon, as Aegon I had just died.

I had assumed that the revolts mentioned were the Faith Militant uprising, but the showdown in the Eyrie seems a little odd, so I am curious if this was indeed the Faith Militant, or some other rebellion?